Alfred Habeeb Professor of Anesthesiology and Perioperative Medicine Dr. Keith A. (Tony) Jones is President of UA Health Services Foundation, Chief Physician Executive for UAB Medicine, and Senior Associate Dean for Clinical Affairs in the Heersink School of Medicine.
He became Professor and Chairman of the Department of Anesthesiology on July 1, 2006, and has strong ties to Alabama. Born in Anniston, he received his B.S. from the University of Alabama in 1982 before going on to earn his M.D. from the UAB Heersink School of Medicine in 1986. He is the first African-American to receive a permanent appointment as department chair in the Heersink School of Medicine.
A widely published expert on smooth cell physiology, Dr. Jones joined the Mayo Clinic faculty in 1991 after completing residency and postgraduate work there, including a postdoctoral National Institutes of Health research fellowship. He served as program director of Mayo’s Smooth Muscle Physiology Laboratory, and was promoted to the rank of professor in 2004.
In addition to his many teaching, mentorship and clinical activities, Dr. Jones is a prolific researcher with interests centering on the cellular and biochemical mechanisms by which volatile anesthetics inhibit airway smooth muscle function and by which reactive oxygen species inhibit smooth muscle function. He has authored or co-authored more than 150 scholarly works. His studies have been consistently supported by research grants from the National Institutes of Health.